Thursday, March 12, 2015

Remember
Steven Spielberg’s sci-fiction ‘Jurassic Park’ that attracted rave reviews in
1993 Based on the 1990 novel of the same name by Michael Crichton, the movie
centered on the fictional Isla Nublar, an islet located off Central America's
Pacific Coast, near Costa Rica, where a billionaire philanthropist and a small
team of genetic scientists had created awildlife park of cloned dinosaurs.
Down under, Palmer Coolum Resort is an iconic resort on the Sunshine Coast. The Resort features 324 accommodation rooms
placed in small clusters throughout natural bushland. It has a 18 hole, Par 72 championship golf
course and many indoor events venue.

Dinosaurs are a
diverse group of animals of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during
the Triassic period, 231.4 million years ago, and were the dominant terrestrial
vertebrates for 135 million years, from the beginning of the Jurassic (about
201 million years ago). The fossil
record indicates that birds evolved from theropod dinosaurs during the Jurassic
Period and, consequently, they are considered a subgroup of dinosaurs by many
paleontologists. Aside from being one of
the largest of the known carnivorous dinosaurs, Tyrannosaurus rex — [T. rex, in
short] — is the dinosaur that has
arguably received the most media exposure. It had a starring role in the
"Jurassic Park" movies and has a renowned exhibit at the American
Museum of Natural History in New York City. The name Tyrannosaurus rex means
"king of the tyrant lizards. T. rex
was a huge carnivore and primarily ate herbivorous dinosaurs, including
Edmontosaurus and Triceratops. The predator acquired its food through
scavenging and hunting, grew incredibly fast and ate hundreds of pounds at a
time, it is believed.

Sixty-five million
years ago the last of the non-avian dinosaurs went extinct. What caused this
mass extinction ? - Scientists are yet to find an answer. The one that does
must explain why these animals died while most mammals, turtles, crocodiles,
salamanders, and frogs survived. Birds escaped. So did snails, bivalves, sea
stars (starfish), and sea urchins. Scientists
tend to huddle around one of two hypotheses that may explain the Cretaceous
extinction: an extraterrestrial impact, such as an asteroid or comet, or a
massive bout of volcanism. Still how
others survived ?

Now
this post is about destruction of a 10-metre model Tyrannosaurus rex, nicknamed
Jeff, that was standing at Clive Palmer's resort on Queensland's Sunshine
Coast. It was ravaged by fire. Firefighters were called to the blaze at the
Coolum resort about 1:30am to find Jeff already well alight.

Police had been
investigating whether the fire was started deliberately, but Mr Palmer told the
ABC he did not believe arson was involved in Jeff's demise. It is stated to be
an electrical fault that caused the fire.
Mr Palmer said he was still deciding whether to bring in a replacement
once what remained of Jeff was dismantled.

Queensland Fire and
Emergency Service had the unusual call of ‘dinosaur on fire’ and its Superintendant who attended is quoted as
saying - Jeff's rubber and fiberglass coating burnt "very, very
quickly". "There was only a small section of the tail left that was
unburnt once the first appliance arrived.
The life-size T-Rex has been roaring at golfers on the ninth hole of the
Palmer Coolum Resort since December 2012. Its arrival in a prominent position
on the golf course was one of several issues that prompted the PGA of Australia
to move the Australian PGA Championship away from the resort. The model's nickname was interpreted by many as a slight
on former deputy premier Jeff Seeney, following Mr Seeney's falling out with Mr
Palmer in the wake of the 2012 election, although Mr Palmer has denied this.